A Woman called Mara Jade
by GravityNeko
Summary: Bottom line: Ben does a little introspection on his mother. I believe this will be after FOT J.


Note: Ben muses about his mother. This will be different from his musing about his dad..it won't be in first person but in third. I thought the way it turned suits better for the subject of Mara.

**.**

His mother's name was Mara Jade—well, that was her maiden name. Her full married name was Mara Jade Skywalker. Most people often who didn't know her at all—i.e. the public—equated her as "Luke Skywalker's wife" period. But his mother was more than just his father's spouse, she was an individual, and had been one long before she had met his father—even when she had been a servant to Palpatine.

The origins of his mother's past are unknown to everyone, and most importantly (regrettably) they are unknown to her. His mom had never known who her parents were. All that was known was Mara Jade had been extremely Force-sensitive. So much so that she had been targeted by Palpatine (Darth SIdious himself) to be a devoted servant; his beautiful yet deadly Hand. His mother's beauty was one of the many reasons many believed Palpatine had taken her into consideration. .

Yes, given her own nature and her psychical appearance, there was not a foe alive that could have gone against Mara Jade.

He had heard reports by others and accounts by his mother herself. She had openly been honest with him about her past; he knew what horrors she had committed all in the name of Palpatine and the Empire. He never held it against her though, it was just one more reason his mother was so wonderful; her loyalty was invaluable—even when given to unscrupulous people.

…which was why Ben had always felt closer to her than his father. She was more down to earth than he felt his father had been. Luke Skywalker to him seemed like some untouchable force, something he could never hope to measure up to. He had been…afraid of him. He had never feared his mother; he had never worried about her acceptance as he did his father's.

His mother in her strong and understanding ways had never judged him as he feared his father had.

He liked to think he and his mother were more alike, which is why they seemed to resonate with each other on that level. It was the reason he had confided in her all the way up to the end—her end.

He had blamed himself for her death, blaming himself for his own cowardess and inability to stand up/face his father. He wasn't the only one to blame himself, his father also voiced his own fault in his wife's death. So there they had stood…half the fault his father's…half the fault his…and neither truly blaming the other.

His mother had been the glue that had held his family together; she had always been the go between him and his father. So it would have seemed when the clue dissolved, their family would have fallen apart, but strangely it did not, and his father had become much closer than they'd ever been. They had returned to Ben's pre-pubescent days when he recalled regarding his father as the sun.

It was sad when you think of it, that such a tragedy could spark togetherness instead of destruction. He knew though his mother would not want it to be that way, he'd want them to be strong, to be there for one another.

That was his mother's strength; it was her own strength. Her ability to stand strong in the face of uncertainly. Though he knew there had been times his mother had not been strong, like the moment she found out about his conception. She had told him how much she had feared for him. Neither of the men in her life had thought her weak. It had only made his father love his mother more when Mara Jade showed her vulnerable side.

The words vulnerable and Mara Jade never quite went together in the same sentence. His mother had in the past been known not only for her strength, but for her cunning nature and her unshakable resolve. She had been unflinching—though frankly these traits had been still present even up till the present day.

Mara Jade _had_ been strong, cunning, but also beautiful, and most notably extremely stubborn. All in all, she was a woman who you didn't mess with lightly. Even his father hadn't been a match for her; but in a way he supposed she had been his perfect match. She was a woman that matched his father's own hard-hardheadedness and strength.

The only woman capable of bringing "the great Luke Skywalker" to his proverbial knees—and putting him in check more times than most people cared to count. His father had always been the one to be doing the rescuing; he'd found many of his love interests in the most contrived ways Ben had ever thought possible.

And as much as his father was good at rescuing and most known for it, in the end, it hadn't been any of those women that his father had married. It had been Mara Jade. She had been the one that had pulled his butt out of the fire more times than people could count.

He supposed that ability to stand on equal footing with him was what Luke Skywalker fall in love with Mara Jade.

It was as they said, a match made by the Maker.

Okay, so the Force had a lot to do with it too.

**.**

**.**


End file.
